Weight reduction is a benchmark that has always been critical to the aerospace and automotive industries. Metal replacement is often key to reducing weight, cost, production times and processing cycles. Polymers can be considered for metal replacement for a wide variety of applications in a range of uses such as manufacturing equipment to automotive engines, aircraft components, oil and gas process and extraction equipment, bushings, bearings, seals, and gears.
Aromatic ThermoSetting coPolyesters (ATSP) are a relatively new multi-purpose resin that demonstrates robust performance in severe thermal and mechanical environments while providing an effective alternative to metal in many situations. ATSP can be fabricated as bulk materials with technical properties that are equivalent or superior to metal parts, with the advantages of lighter weight, lower cost, and nearly limitless design potential. Given recent advances, the synthetic development of ATSP was a major innovation in the field of polymer science. ATSP exhibits excellent specific strength, stiffness and dimensional stability at high temperature with a glass transition temperature as high as 305° C. and a short-term service temperature up to 350° C. and 425° C. in air and nitrogen, respectively. ATSP also shows extreme flame resistance, ablative character, and excellent performance as adhesives, rigid foams (by utilizing the evolution of acetic acid, the by-product of crosslinking), and as tribological wear coatings with low coefficient of friction, excellent wear and abrasion resistance. ATSP is an all-aromatic polyester with superior environmental and chemical resistance with intrinsic resistance to weathering (moisture pick-up <0.3%). ATSP displays a unique feature among high temperature thermosets, known as interchain transesterification reactions (ITR), which allows solid-state bonding between fully cured lamina or other solid bodies.
Previous testing of their capabilities showed excellent performance as adhesives, matrices for composites, tribological coatings and dielectrics for microelectronics. ATSP has the following features that make it suitable for many different applications:                a. ATSP is designed for high-temperature stability with a glass transition temperature ranging from 210-305° C.;        b. It has a unique ability to react with itself even after curing, undergoing interchain transesterification reactions (ITR). This can offer valuable functionality during processing and during use, allowing reincorporation of wear debris into the coating surface thus extending lifetime; and        c. ATSP can be recycled to its original oligomers for reuse.        